On Monday UOW held its Spring Careers Fair and decided to invite Defence Force Recruiting, amongst a wide range of socially and environmentally devastating employers.

With the occupation of Afghanistan by NATO and Australian miliary forces coming up to its ten-year anniversary and Defence Force Recruiting arriving on campus to sign up students for this and other exercises in imperialism and aggression, SAW figured that the opportunity to protest was too good. So we simply packed a few signs (“End the occupation of Afghanistan” “Don’t choose a career in killing”) and a banner (“Students Against War”) into a bag, walked inside the fair, and then set up directly in front of the military’s stall.

We stood around for about twenty-five minutes in front of the stall, smiling, laughing, taking photos and chatting with eachother. The army staff immediately vacated the stall and stood off to the side, occasionally abusing us but mostly staring on in bewilderment (one woman, after a short conversation, suprisingly told us that she could see the point of what we were doing). Security, who were gathered inside the fair in large numbers but simply didn’t seem to notice us walking in, also rushed over and started hassling us and telling us we had to leave, but then gave up after a while when we didn’t move.

Then after about half-an-hour of this we left, feeling our point was made, and went and got some coffee. The war in Afghanistan and UOW’s support for it through its weapons research program can expect to come under more pressure from SAW as the population turns against this unpopular conflict and more Afghans and Australian and NATO soldiers die for no real purpose at all.

Last month, as fires broke out again at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and Japanese authorities confirmed that a triple meltdown had occured only hours after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, over 70 people packed into the Communications Building to hear physicist and renowned anti-nuclear activist Dr Helen Caldicott speak about the dangers of nuclear power.

Going into detail about exactly what had happened in Japan, the nuclear fuel cycle, the medical effects of nuclear radiation, the nuclear arms race, and the total impossibility of ever disposing of nuclear waste safely, Dr Caldicott held the crowd’s attention for the full one-hour duration of her speech with an incredibly engaging manner. Her talk was also  preceded by a presentation by Risa Tokunaga, a recently-evacuated Japanese anarchist and anti-nuclear activist who spoke about the huge and rapidly-growing anti-nuclear movement in Japan.

SAW also received positive coverage in the media, with interviews with our members being played on WIN News, ABC Illawarra and i98FM.

Given that we in Students Against War are fighting against Wollongong Uni’s participation in an $85 million military research program that is helping to design components for weapons that will almost certainly be firing radioactive depleted uranium ammunition, the night was especially relevant. SAW will be back to continue campaigning against the Defence Materials Technology Centre next semester so stay tuned for more great events and actions!

Students Against War are extraordinarily pleased to announce that Nobel Peace Prize-nominated peace activist and highly respected anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott will be visiting Wollongong to give a public talk on the evening of Friday, 13 May.

After Helen’s extremely engaging talk to an appreciative audience last year, SAW was delighted when Helen decided to come back this year as well.

In light of the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan, the ever-present threat of nuclear weapons, and the conducting of research into military hardware, including weapons equipped to fire depleted uranium munitions, at the University of Wollongong itself, this is a must see event for anyone concerned about the fate of humanity and our planet.

The event will be free with a call for donations on the night. Helen’s speech will be preceded by an presentation by Risa Tokunaga, a Japanese anti-nuclear activist from Tokyo.

Where: University of Wollongong, Communications Building (Bld 20) Theatre One

When: Friday 13 May, 6pm

On Tuesday the university had its Careers Fair, with a whole host of big corporations descending onto campus to recruit students. Not simply content just to open its doors to a whole range of killer uranium and coal mining  companies and the military, the university this year decided to step it up a notch, and lay out the welcome mat for possibly one of the most nasty companies on the planet, BAE Systems – world’s largest arms dealer, profiteer to the tune of billions of dollars from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, supplier of weaponry to dicatorships in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and funder of UOW’s program to help develop components for the next generation of killing technology.

So, of course, SAW rocked up to protest! We picketed the fair, handed out 150 leaflets, held up placards denouncing UOW and BAE, gave speeches, chatted to students, and took interviews for Wave FM, ABC Illawarra, i98FM, Prime TV and - somewhat bizarrely - UOW TV. It had originally been our plan to go into the fair and protest at BAE’s stall, but due to the great lengths we’d gone to to attract media and publicise BAE’s prescence, security turned up in large numbers to prevent any “disruption.” (Of course, designing missile systems for more efficient bombing, selling torture equipment, manufacturing anti-personnel bombs, taking over UOW’s labs to develop better weaponry - none of this is disruptive in any way.) Quite a few students were irate that nobody was allowed to get into the hall, but many others stood around to listen, took leaflets and chatted with us.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for the university to perform military research and host war-profiteering companies like BAE without attracting constant protests and a great deal of negative publicity. The over-the-top way in which the university is starting to react to us (sending security to follow us for hours on end after we held up a banner on the first day of semester, for instance) is just one sign of this. Soon enough we’re going to have to move on from small protests to bigger actions that link everything wrong with the uni (massive cuts to Arts and music courses, no money to buy renewable energy, millions for war research) and that are going to have the power to really challenge the administration and win lasting gains for students and staff!

Students Against War want to declare our solidarity with and support for the revolutionary uprisings against the autocratic regimes of the Middle East. What is going on right now in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and elsewhere is of truly world historic significance – it is the event of the twenty-first century. Dictators right across the region who have been in power for decades – many supported all that time by the West – are being toppled one after the other in the biggest wave of uprisings the world has seen since 1968.

The hypocrisy of NATO countries – in continuing to back and arm many of these regimes which are shooting down their own citizens in the hundreds, yet crying foul over what is happening in Libya and intervening – is breathtaking. This has nothing to do with saving lives, and everything to do with imperial power. Furthermore, it’s disgusting that UOW is performing military research for arms manufacturers like BAE Systems, who have sold millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the Libyan regime, as well as to many of the other dictatorships in the region.

SAW was very impressed and moved by this article, The signs of the defeat of the Libyan revolution, written by a Libyan anarchist, which condemns both the NATO intervention and the militarisation of the revolution against Ghaddafi. So much so that we decided to link it on our website. Enjoy!

Next week Students Against War are excited to be screening David Zeiger’s highly acclaimed documentary “Sir! No Sir!”, our first event of the year. Yay!

“Sir! No Sir!” looks at the massive resistance to the Vietnam war waged by the troops who were conscripted to fight the war themselves, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers deserting from the army, rallying against the war, mutinying, refusing orders to go on combat operations, and eventually making it completely impossible to effectively carry out the war any longer.

Given that we in SAW are fighting against war research at UOW, it’s always incredibly encouraging to see and learn about how others have successfully resisted the insanity of war – especially the soldiers assigned to carry out wars themselves.

“Sir! No Sir!” is FREE and we encourage everyone to attend! Hope to see you there

When: 12.30-1.30pm, Tuesday March 15 (Week 3)

Where: Room 19-1064 (Arts Building)

After a blissed out four month absence, Students Against War burst back onto the scene today with a banner drop over the Northfields Avenue entrance to UOW. As hundreds of cars crawled past in morning peak hour, a dedicated crowd of SAW supporters clambered up onto the giant UOW sign and stood around holding our big “Stop UOW’s War Research!” banner, laughing, chatting, catching up, and alerting thousands of people that we’re still around and still intend to bring UOW’s war research to a permanent end. It was pretty enjoyable way to kick off the 2011 campaigning season, and totally heartening to get forty or fifty beeps/thumbs up from passing drivers (as well as a couple of one-finger salutes and the yelled comment “tossers!” which we also kind of enjoyed). Then after about an hour-and-a-half of this we jumped down and headed off to have coffee… with three security guards trailing along after us, peeping out from around corners and reporting our every move on walkie-talkies, much to our amusement.

And thus the year of anti-war campaigning at UOW has begun, exactly a year after it kicked off with a similar protest on the first day of semester in 2010. We’ll be back again in even more dramatic style soon

With the wrapping up of second semester SAW has gone on holidays for the Summer. We’ll be back in February and guarantee we’ll be making it extremely difficult for the uni to continue participating in the Defence Materials Technology Centre throughout 2011. All the unfinished parts of our blog should be complete by then, too.

Happy holidays!

Recently people from a range of organisations have gotten together to form Broad Left, a monthly newsletter for activist and community news and events in the Illawarra. It’s a great step towards connecting the various progressive groups  and activists in the region with eachother, who often struggle on unaware of the existence of other local sympathisers. 

Broad Left can be found at broadleft.net or on Facebook here. Editions come out at the start of each month.  

SAW also came in for a mention this month following our occupation of the Defence Materials Technology Centre. Sweet!

Yesterday, with polls finding that 60% of Australians wished for an immediate withdrawal of occupying forces from Afghanistan, politicians on both sides of parliament pledging that Australian troops would remain there for at least another decade, and the Sydney Morning Herald announcing that “Australia digs in for war with no end”, Students Against War took matters into our own hands and occupied the university’s Defence Materials Technology Centre, bringing its operations to a total, grinding halt.

The Environment Collective has 3,000 signatures on a petition asking for 100% renewable energy on campus and has been ignored by administration, the Save UOW Music group has over 700 members and has experienced a similar fate, and so we decided that, instead of asking someone to stop UOW’s war research for us - well, we’d simply move in and stop it ourselves!

The day began with our members taking radio interviews for WaveFM, i98FM, ABC Illawarra and Sydney station 2SER. Then, at  about lunchtime, alerted by texts, word-of-mouth and e-mails, a small crew of 12 formed up on the Jugglers’ Lawn, chatted to journalists from WIN News that we’d invited, and tested out our musical instruments. (Part of the absurdity of the Defence Materials Technology Centre is that, although money can be found for this $85 million program, the university is completely eliminating its music program and refusing to purchase more renewable energy due to alleged lack of funding.)

Then, when everyone had assembled, we strolled into the Engineering building, down the corridor, and simply walked right in through the conveniently wide open door of the DMTC offices. After a brief chat with staff (“Look, if you insist on staying you’re disrupting my work.” “That’s the idea.”) we declared the vacated offices ours, and settled in to see what the uni had in store for us.

While we waited we made ourselves at home, reading, talking, laughing, sitting round, jamming on our instruments, and making the offices a bit more visually interesting. Meanwhile WIN News sat outside and did a report on us.

Then security finally came, we had a chat with them, and… then nothing much happened! We just stayed in the empty offices, waited around for a few hours stopping any research from being carried out, then marched out with much noise and fanfare, and went off to the bar and drank beer… watched the whole time by three or four incredibly paranoid security guards.

And thus SAW ended the year with a bang, with about ten times the participants that we’d begun with, thousands and thousands of leaflets and posters distributed, many successful events carried out, and media and campus notoriety. We’ll be back in 2011 with ten times the number of people again :)

Update 27 Oct: SAW has been made aware that on the day of the occupation both the Mckinnon Building and the  admininistration block were in lock down and swarming with security guards in anticipation of student protests.  This needlessly caused disruption for students and staff and wasted university resources at a time when the music program is facing the axe.  It was also ineffective in preventing the student anti-war actions which occurred in another part of the university.